Just Empathy – Emotionally Engaged Perspective-Taking under Conditions of Oppression (2026-2029)

Abstract

Empathy – a form of emotionally engaged imaginative perspective-taking – is often considered as a dyadic phenomenon that has its place in close personal relationships. Nevertheless, empathy can have social and political preconditions as well as consequences. Conditions of different forms of oppression, such as racism and sexism, impact who is able and willing to empathize with whom regarding what kind of experiences. While oppression creates obstacles for empathy with oppressed perspectives, it enables and incentivizes empathy with privileged perspectives. Although it has been identified as a desideratum of empathy research, this connection between empathy and oppression has so far remained undertheorized. The present project aims to fill this lacuna by developing a systematic philosophical account of empathy under conditions of oppression. Special focus will be placed on elucidating the political, ethical, and epistemic significance of distortions in empathy that arise under conditions of oppression as well as the complex effects of oppression on the perspective of the oppressed, who are enabled and incentivized to empathize with privileged perspectives.

Project information